United States: Regulatory Update: NAIC Summer 2017 National Meeting

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners held its
Summer 2017 National Meeting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from
August 6 to 9, 2017. This Sidley Update summarizes the highlights
from this meeting.

1. NAIC Task Force and Working Group Adopt Insurance Data
Security Model Law

The Innovation and Technology (EX) Task Force and Cybersecurity
(EX) Working Group adopted a final version of the Insurance Data
Security Model Law (IDS Model Law). The IDS Model Law next must be
approved by both the Executive (EX) Committee and Plenary, which is
anticipated by year-end. Assuming such approval, the IDS Model Law,
when adopted by a state, would apply to virtually all insurance
licensees in such state and provide standards for data security and
the investigation, and notification to the insurance commissioner,
of a cybersecurity event.

The Big Data (EX) Working Group (Big Data Working Group)
proposed the formation of a Predictive Analytics Team (PAT) to
assist states in reviewing complex rating models for personal lines
automobile and homeowners' insurance. The PAT would consist of
NAIC employees with predictive analytics, insurance and actuarial
experience. The proposal is in response to the Big Data Working
Group's charge to "[p]ropose a mechanism to provide
resources and allow states to share resources to facilitate
states' ability to conduct technical analysis of and data
collection related to the states' review of complex models used
by insurers for underwriting, rating and claims." A Predictive
Analytics Working Group (PAWG), consisting of 5 to 10 regulatory
actuaries, would also be created. Among other matters, the PAWG
would formulate a checklist of required data that insurers must
include in their SERFF rate filings for any models used in their
rating plans. The checklist would facilitate a state's
determination of whether the model should be sent to the PAT for
review (e.g., if it is a new model or involves updates to a
previously approved model). If a model were referred to the PAT,
the PAT would issue either a report to the state with its findings
or an objection letter to the insurer requesting additional
information. The PAT would maintain a record of all models reviewed
for access by the states.

The Life Insurance and Annuities (A) Committee ((A) Committee)
voted to disband the Unclaimed Life Insurance Benefits (A) Working
Group (Unclaimed Property Working Group) and to cease efforts on
the draft Unclaimed Life Insurance and Annuities Model Act (NAIC
Unclaimed Property Model Act). The vote followed the Unclaimed
Property Working Group's report regarding the three issues with
respect to which the Unclaimed Property Working Group has been
unable to achieve consensus, namely: (a) the applicability of the
NAIC Unclaimed Property Model Act generally (i.e., retroactive
versus prospective application), (b) the applicability of the NAIC
Unclaimed Property Model Act to policies that have lapsed within 18
months of the effective date of the NAIC Unclaimed Property Model
Act, and (c) the definition of "Death master file
match."

The NAIC has formed the Long-Term Care Insurance (B/E) Task
Force (LTC Task Force), which is charged with coordinating the
NAIC's work regarding the changing long-term care (LTC)
insurance marketplace, with a particular focus on the financial
solvency of LTC insurers, financial reporting and actuarial
valuation standards applicable to LTC insurance, proposed rate
increases on existing LTC insurance blocks and the impact of LTC
insurer insolvencies on state guaranty funds. In connection with
such issues, the NAIC has approved model law development requests
(a) to re-open and potentially amend the Life and Health Insurance
Guaranty Association Model Act (Guaranty Fund Model Act) for the
limited purpose of addressing issues related to LTC insurer
insolvencies, and (b) to develop the Short Duration Long-Term Care
Policies Model Act and Regulation.

5. NAIC Developing Model Act Regarding Travel Insurance

Through the Travel Insurance (C) Working Group, the NAIC is
developing the NAIC Travel Insurance Model Act (NAIC Travel Model
Act), which is intended to provide a uniform, comprehensive
framework for regulating the marketing and sale of insurance
products related to travel protection. The Travel Insurance (C)
Working Group intends to finalize and adopt the NAIC Travel Model
Act on an expedited basis.

Several NAIC Task Forces and Working Groups indicated during the
Summer Meeting that they are uncertain about how to proceed with
certain NAIC initiatives following the recent announcement that the
U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Office of the U.S. Trade
Representative intend to sign the "Bilateral Agreement Between
the European Union and the United States of America on Prudential
Measures Regarding Insurance and Reinsurance" (Covered
Agreement). The Covered Agreement, the final legal text of which
was submitted to Congress on January 13, 2017, addresses the
following two issues of importance to the NAIC: (a) group
supervision of insurers and (b) reinsurance collateral
requirements.

7. NAIC Continues Work on Risk-Based Capital Initiatives

The NAIC's Working Groups are (a) considering changes to the
calculation of risk-based capital (RBC) when an insurer receives a
Federal Home Loan Bank (FHLB) advance and posts related collateral;
(b) implementing a catastrophe risk factor (Rcat) in the
property-casualty RBC formula, effective for year-end 2017, and
considering whether to include additional perils in the Rcat; and
(c) implementing a revised property-casualty RBC blank and
instructions, effective for year-end 2018, that references a new
credit risk charge for reinsurance recoverables as a component of
the credit risk charge.

The Valuation of Securities (E) Task Force (VOS Task Force)
continued discussions regarding how it should proceed now that it
has decided against adopting a controversial proposal that would
have given the Securities Valuation Office (SVO) the power to
override ratings of nationally recognized statistical rating
organizations for filing exempt (FE) and private letter (PL)
securities. The controversial proposal would have amended the
Purposes and Procedures Manual (P&P Manual) of the NAIC
Investment Analysis Office (IAO) to add a verification process for
FE securities and securities that are subject to PL ratings and
would have transferred responsibility of FE and PL rating
procedures from insurance companies to the SVO. After scrapping the
proposal, the VOS Task Force decided it will instead seek
enhancements to the FE process (FE Enhancements), which would
ultimately be reflected in the P&P Manual. Shortly before the
Summer Meeting, the VOS Task Force exposed for comment a series of
memoranda setting forth proposed policy (and related implementing
amendments to the P&P Manual) to guide the development of the
FE Enhancements.

The Market Regulation and Consumer Affairs (D) Committee adopted
revisions to the charge of the Pre-Dispute Mandatory Arbitration
Clauses (D) Working Group (Arbitration Clauses Working Group). The
original charge authorized the Arbitration Clauses Working Group to
either prohibit the use of pre-dispute mandatory arbitration,
choice-of-law and choice-of-venue clauses (Clauses) or take no
action with respect to the Clauses. The revised charge provides
additional options. In addition to prohibition, the Arbitration
Clauses Working Group may develop (a) a new model act governing use
of the Clauses or (b) other guidance, such as a bulletin, regarding
their use. The revised charge also allows for distinct treatment of
personal lines and commercial insurance for purposes of determining
appropriate use (or prohibition) of the Clauses.

Additional Information

1. NAIC Task Force and Working Group Adopt Insurance Data
Security Model Law

Specific requirements of the IDS Model Law include, in relevant
part:

implementation of a comprehensive written information security
program based upon a licensee's risk assessment process (as
specified under the IDS Model Law) and the licensee's size,
complexity and activities;

diligence in selection and oversight of third-party service
providers who receive or access nonpublic information;

establishing a written incident response plan;

annual compliance certification to the domiciliary insurance
commissioner; and

notification to the insurance commissioner within 72 hours
after determining that a cybersecurity event has occurred, if
certain criteria is met.

If a licensee is already in compliance with the cybersecurity
regulation issued by the New York State Department of Financial
Services (which became effective on March 1, 2017, with ongoing
compliance deadlines over the following 24 months), the IDS Model
Law provides that such licensee is also deemed to be in compliance
with the IDS Model Law.

Stakeholders expressed several concerns with the proposed
structure including:

the structure delegates regulatory functions that are within
the purview of the states to the NAIC without legal authority;

confidentiality and trade secret protections for intellectual
property embedded in the models are lacking;

the qualifications of NAIC staff to review complex models are
unclear;

innovation and speed-to-market would be inhibited; and

any "checklist" should be formulated by the Casualty
Actuarial and Statistical (C) Task Force, not the proposed
PAWG.

The Big Data Working Group clarified that the intent of the PAT
would be to serve in merely a technical consulting role and as a
resource for states to improve efficiency and speed-to-market, not
to operate as another regulator. Further discussion of the proposal
is expected during the Big Data Working Group's next conference
call.

Immediately following such report, Commissioner Dave Jones of
California expressed his belief that, even with continued efforts,
the Unclaimed Property Working Group would be not be able to
achieve consensus on these issues and his agreement with the
American Council of Life Insurers (ACLI) that further work on the
NAIC Unclaimed Property Model Act would not be a good use of state
insurance department resources. While acknowledging that California
(which originally chaired the drafting subgroup that prepared the
NAIC Unclaimed Property Model Act) had invested significant staff
resources in developing the NAIC Unclaimed Property Model Act,
California made the motion to disband the Unclaimed Property
Working Group and to cease work on the NAIC Unclaimed Property
Model Act. The motion passed with virtually no discussion (as no
other members of the (A) Committee commented, and representatives
from the ACLI and the Center for Insurance Research made only brief
remarks and did not object to California's motion).

The draft NAIC Unclaimed Property Model Act was the result of
over three years of work led by the (A) Committee and its Working
Groups and Drafting Subgroups. The draft NAIC Unclaimed Property
Model Act was largely based on the National Conference of Insurance
Legislators (NCOIL) Model Unclaimed Life Insurance Benefits Act
(NCOIL Unclaimed Property Model Act), with some differences based
on the requirements contained in the related regulatory settlement
agreements that regulators have entered into with several insurers.
As of early June 2017, according to the ACLI, 25 states had adopted
statutes similar to the NCOIL Unclaimed Property Model Act,
legislation similar to the NCOIL Unclaimed Property Model Act was
pending in five states, and only two states (Illinois and Florida)
had enacted unclaimed property insurance laws that substantially
deviated from the NCOIL Unclaimed Property Model Act.

The Receivership Model Law (E) Working Group (Receivership
Working Group) has formed an ad hoc drafting group to prepare the
amendments to the Guaranty Fund Model Act. The drafting group will
be co-chaired by Colorado and Washington, and at least 7 other
states and 18 interested parties have volunteered to participate in
the drafting group. The Receivership Working Group plans to prepare
and adopt the amendments to the Guaranty Fund Model Act on an
expedited basis to allow for adoption by the Executive (EX)
Committee and Plenary before December 31, 2017 (ideally) in order
to allow individual states to propose the amendments for adoption
during the spring 2018 legislative session.

Through a series of calls preceding the Summer Meeting, the
Receivership Working Group determined that the amendments will, in
relevant part, make the following changes to the assessment base
for LTC insurer insolvencies:

Merge the life (and annuities) and health insurance lines of
business. This was agreed in order to resolve the perceived
inequity of health insurers paying the majority of the assessment
for a line of business they generally don't write. (Although
LTC insurance is primarily written by life insurers, because LTC
insurance is classified as a health product, only health
insurers—the majority of which do not sell LTC
insurance—currently are subject to assessment for LTC
insurance insolvencies).

Include health maintenance organizations. Health maintenance
organizations (HMOs) are excluded from the scope of the Guaranty
Fund Model Act. However, given the increasing similarities between
HMO products and health insurance policies, health insurers have
argued that HMOs will have a competitive advantage over health
insurers if HMOs continue to be excluded from the scope of the
Guaranty Fund Model Act (particularly for purposes of the
assessment base for LTC insurer insolvencies). HMO trade
organizations oppose such amendments, but the drafting group
nonetheless plans to base the amendments to the Guaranty Fund Model
Act on a bill that was recently considered by the Colorado
legislature, which included HMOs within the scope of the assessment
base.

Short Duration LTC Insurance

The Short Duration Long-Term Care Policies (B) Subgroup is
drafting the Short Duration Long-Term Care Policies Model Act and
Regulation, which will regulate LTC insurance products of short
duration (which typically provide the same type of benefits as LTC
insurance, but for a period less than 12 consecutive months, and
are excluded from regulation under both the Long-Term Care
Insurance Model Act and Regulation and the Individual Accident and
Sickness Insurance Minimum Standards Model Act and Regulation).

5. NAIC Developing Model Act Regarding Travel Insurance

Many states have adopted a version of the NCOIL Limited Lines
Travel Insurance Model Act (NCOIL Travel Model Act), which
generally addresses licensing requirements related to selling,
soliciting or negotiating travel insurance. In March 2017, NCOIL
adopted amendments to the NCOIL Travel Model Act, now known as the
"Travel Insurance Model Act." As amended, the NCOIL
Travel Model Act provides a comprehensive framework for regulating
travel insurance and other travel-related products, prescribing
rules related to, among other things, premium taxes, form and rate
filing, the competitiveness of the travel insurance market and
related sales practices (including a prohibition against requiring
consumers to opt out of the purchase of travel insurance). The
initial draft of the NAIC Travel Model Act is nearly identical to
the amended NCOIL Travel Model Act, with the key differences being
(a) the deletion of the "competitive market" section of
the amended NCOIL Travel Model Act and (b) provision for electronic
delivery of insurance materials to start the policyholder's
10-day free look period. Additional differences between the NAIC
Travel Model Act and the NCOIL Travel Model Act will likely develop
throughout the comment process on the NAIC Travel Model Act.

The NAIC's Financial Regulation Standards and Accreditation
(F) Committee ((F) Committee) voted to defer action on making the
NAIC's Corporate Governance Annual Disclosure Model Act and
Corporate Governance Annual Disclosure Model Regulation a new state
accreditation standard. Only a handful of states have adopted the
models and, at the meeting, (F) Committee members noted that
legislators have been reluctant to adopt the models before it is
determined whether the Covered Agreement will result in any
additional corporate governance requirements.

The (F) Committee also voted to defer action on updating its
accreditation standards to include the 2014 revisions to the
Insurance Holding Company System Regulatory Act due to uncertainty
regarding the impact that the Covered Agreement may have on group
supervision of insurers. Such revisions address the authority of an
insurance commissioner to act as the group-wide supervisor for an
internationally active insurance group or to acknowledge the
authority of another regulatory official, from another
jurisdiction, to so act.

Reinsurance Collateral
Requirements

Pending the signing of the Covered Agreement, the Reinsurance
(E) Task Force directed its Qualified Jurisdiction (E) Working
Group to discontinue further work on its report concerning EU
member state implementation of Solvency II and the potential impact
on the "Qualified Jurisdiction" status of France,
Germany, Ireland and the United Kingdom. The Reinsurance (E) Task
Force had previously asked the Qualified Jurisdiction (E) Working
Group to consider how to best address jurisdictions that have been
afforded Qualified Jurisdiction status but are imposing Solvency
II-related restrictions on U.S. reinsurers doing business in those
Qualified Jurisdictions.

The Reinsurance (E) Task Force also acknowledged that if the
Covered Agreement is implemented, the NAIC Credit for Reinsurance
Model Act and Regulation (CFR Model Laws), which establish reduced
collateral requirements for "certified reinsurers," will
need to be revised (again), and such revisions will need to be made
an accreditation standard. The NAIC recently made the certified
reinsurer provisions of the CFR Model Laws an accreditation
standard.

7. NAIC Continues Work on Risk-Based Capital Initiatives

RBC Charge for Assets Pledged as Collateral for FHLB
Advances

Currently, the assets posted as collateral for an FHLB advance
remain on the insurer's balance sheet and generate an RBC
amount based on the credit risk of the asset. The FHLB advance is
recorded as either a borrowing or as a funding agreement and it is
generally included in the insurer's C-3 modeling to generate an
RBC amount for asset-liability mismatch. Additionally, since such
assets are classified as "non-controlled assets," an RBC
factor of 1.3 percent is applied to the collateral (in addition to
any other RBC amounts for the assets and liabilities).

The Life Risk-Based Capital (E) Working Group is considering a
proposal from the ACLI that would result, in relevant part, in the
following RBC changes related to FHLB advances:

For FHLB advances subject to C3P1 Cash Flow Testing, a factor
of zero would apply to the assets pledged as collateral, up to the
amount of the FHLB advance, and a factor equal to the NAIC's
credit risk charge for FHLB as a counterparty would apply to assets
pledged in excess of the amount of the FHLB advance. For FHLB
advances that are not subject to C3P1 Cash Flow Testing, the
NAIC's credit risk charge for FHLB as a counterparty would
apply to the entire amount of pledged collateral supporting the
advance.

The amount of assets pledged in excess of the amount of the
FHLB advance (which are available to be recalled by the insurer),
would not be considered non-controlled asset risk and would be
excluded from the C-0 RBC risk charge.

Collateral supporting certain FHLB spread-lending activities
would be subject to a higher non-controlled asset charge (equal to
the factor for a Baa Corporate Bond asset factor) if the amount of
the related FHLB advance exceeds 5 percent of the insurer's
total net admitted assets, unless the insurer has received
authorization for the higher advance amount from its domiciliary
state insurance regulator.

Catastrophe Risk Factor

After more than a decade of deliberations, the property-casualty
RBC formula includes, effective for year-end 2017, the Rcat, which
computes Total RBC after Covariance. The Rcat is currently a
combination of earthquake and hurricane risks, but the Property and
Casualty Risk-Based Capital (E) Working Group (P&C RBC Working
Group) is considering whether to include additional catastrophe
perils. Its Catastrophe Risk (E) Subgroup has identified the
following as potential additions: (1) tornado (severe convective
storm); (2) flood (non-U.S., and U.S. as private market develops);
(3) terrorism; (4) wildfire; (5) winter storm; (6) cyber risk; (7)
fire following earthquake; (8) workers compensation earthquake
exposure; and (9) industrial accident.

Credit Risk Charge for Reinsurance
Recoverables

Calculation of the credit risk charge for reinsurance
recoverables, included in the revised property-casualty RBC blank
and instructions, effective for year-end 2018, depends on: (1) the
financial strength rating assigned to the reinsurer from which
balances are due; and (2) whether such amounts are collateralized
or uncollateralized. A reinsurer's financial strength rating is
the same rating assigned to it for purposes of determining the
amount of required collateral for a cedent to obtain credit for
reinsurance (e.g., Secure-1, Secure-2, Secure-3, Secure-4,
Secure-5, Vulnerable-6). Reinsurance balances receivable on
reinsurance ceded to non-affiliated companies (excluding certain
pools) and to alien affiliates are subject to the charge. The
following types of cessions are exempt from the charge: (a)
cessions to state-mandated involuntary pools and associations or
involving federal insurance programs; and (b) cessions to U.S.
parents, subsidiaries and affiliates.

The materials that the VOS Task Force exposed for comment set
forth the following key proposals related to the FE
Enhancements:

Discrepancies Between NAIC/Insurer
Designations

Where an insurer believes an official NAIC designation is
incorrect, it could report its own computed designation, along with
an "RE" suffix that would flag the discrepancy. The
insurer would then follow up with the IAO to resolve the
conflicting designations; such interactions should eventually
reduce future conflicts. The VOS Task Force will need to establish
"reasonable grounds" for using such a process.

Role of the IAO

The IAO must be allowed to make changes to automated FE
designations (for both publicly and privately rated securities) in
order to reduce reporting differences in the future. However, such
changes should be limited to correcting an error in computing an FE
designation produced incorrectly by the automated process, or
correcting some other anomaly in the NAIC designation. The VOS Task
Force will confirm that the IAO has responsibility for studying and
recommending ways to improve the NAIC designation production
process, including designations based on credit ratings. The VOS
Task Force must decide whether to delete or modify language in the
P&P Manual that currently gives the SVO discretion to ignore a
credit rating.

Securities Subject to PL Ratings

Beginning January 1, 2018, PL ratings would need to be either
included in rating agency feeds (used for the automated FE process)
or filed with the IAO so they can be manually added to the FE
database. PL rated securities reported in an insurer's annual
statutory financial statements would have a "PL" suffix
added to the designation. However, existing filing options could be
used in instances where PL ratings cannot be immediately added to
rating agency feeds or cannot be filed with the IAO for
confidentiality or other reasons. (This process would also apply to
FE securities that receive publicly disclosed ratings, reflecting
the SVO's view that securities subject to PL ratings are a
sub-population of FE securities). Over time, gaps with PL ratings
should be eliminated as insurers work with rating agencies to
expand their feeds and adjust nondisclosure agreements to allow for
sharing with the IAO.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general
guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought
about your specific circumstances.

To print this article, all you need is to be registered on Mondaq.com.

Click to Login as an existing user or Register so you can print this article.

This service is completely free. Access 250,000 archived articles from 100+ countries and get a personalised email twice a week covering developments (and yes, our lawyers like to think you’ve read our Disclaimer).

Email Address

Company Name

Password

Confirm Password

Position

Mondaq Topics -- Select your Interests

Accounting

Anti-trust

Commercial

Compliance

Consumer

Criminal

Employment

Energy

Environment

Family

Finance

Government

Healthcare

Immigration

Insolvency

Insurance

International

IP

Law Performance

Law Practice

Litigation

Media & IT

Privacy

Real Estate

Strategy

Tax

Technology

Transport

Wealth Mgt

Regions

Africa

Asia

Asia Pacific

Australasia

Canada

Caribbean

Europe

European Union

Latin America

Middle East

U.K.

United States

Worldwide Updates

Check to state you have read and agree to our Terms and Conditions

Terms & Conditions and Privacy Statement

Mondaq.com (the Website) is owned and managed by Mondaq Ltd and as a user you
are granted a non-exclusive, revocable license to access the Website under its
terms and conditions of use. Your use of the Website constitutes your agreement
to the following terms and conditions of use. Mondaq Ltd may terminate your use
of the Website if you are in breach of these terms and conditions or if Mondaq
Ltd decides to terminate your license of use for whatever reason.

Use of www.mondaq.com

You may use the Website but are required to register as a user if you wish to
read the full text of the content and articles available (the Content). You may
not modify, publish, transmit, transfer or sell, reproduce, create derivative
works from, distribute, perform, link, display, or in any way exploit any of the
Content, in whole or in part, except as expressly permitted in these terms &
conditions or with the prior written consent of Mondaq Ltd. You may not use
electronic or other means to extract details or information about Mondaq.com’s
content, users or contributors in order to offer them any services or products
which compete directly or indirectly with Mondaq Ltd’s services and products.

Disclaimer

Mondaq Ltd and/or its respective suppliers make no representations about the
suitability of the information contained in the documents and related graphics
published on this server for any purpose. All such documents and related
graphics are provided "as is" without warranty of any kind. Mondaq Ltd and/or
its respective suppliers hereby disclaim all warranties and conditions with
regard to this information, including all implied warranties and conditions of
merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title and non-infringement.
In no event shall Mondaq Ltd and/or its respective suppliers be liable for any
special, indirect or consequential damages or any damages whatsoever resulting
from loss of use, data or profits, whether in an action of contract, negligence
or other tortious action, arising out of or in connection with the use or
performance of information available from this server.

The documents and related graphics published on this server could include
technical inaccuracies or typographical errors. Changes are periodically added
to the information herein. Mondaq Ltd and/or its respective suppliers may make
improvements and/or changes in the product(s) and/or the program(s) described
herein at any time.

Registration

Mondaq Ltd requires you to register and provide information that personally
identifies you, including what sort of information you are interested in, for
three primary purposes:

To allow you to personalize the Mondaq websites you are visiting.

To enable features such as password reminder, newsletter alerts, email a
colleague, and linking from Mondaq (and its affiliate sites) to your website.

Mondaq (and its affiliate sites) do not sell or provide your details to third
parties other than information providers. The reason we provide our information
providers with this information is so that they can measure the response their
articles are receiving and provide you with information about their products and
services.

If you do not want us to provide your name and email address you may opt out
by clicking here .

If you do not wish to receive any future announcements of products and
services offered by Mondaq by clicking here .

Information Collection and Use

We require site users to register with Mondaq (and its affiliate sites) to
view the free information on the site. We also collect information from our
users at several different points on the websites: this is so that we can
customise the sites according to individual usage, provide 'session-aware'
functionality, and ensure that content is acquired and developed appropriately.
This gives us an overall picture of our user profiles, which in turn shows to
our Editorial Contributors the type of person they are reaching by posting
articles on Mondaq (and its affiliate sites) – meaning more free content for
registered users.

We are only able to provide the material on the Mondaq (and its affiliate
sites) site free to site visitors because we can pass on information about the
pages that users are viewing and the personal information users provide to us
(e.g. email addresses) to reputable contributing firms such as law firms who
author those pages. We do not sell or rent information to anyone else other than
the authors of those pages, who may change from time to time. Should you wish us
not to disclose your details to any of these parties, please tick the box above
or tick the box marked "Opt out of Registration Information Disclosure" on the
Your Profile page. We and our author organisations may only contact you via
email or other means if you allow us to do so. Users can opt out of contact when
they register on the site, or send an email to unsubscribe@mondaq.com with “no
disclosure” in the subject heading

Mondaq News Alerts

In order to receive Mondaq News Alerts, users have to complete a separate
registration form. This is a personalised service where users choose regions and
topics of interest and we send it only to those users who have requested it.
Users can stop receiving these Alerts by going to the Mondaq News Alerts page
and deselecting all interest areas. In the same way users can amend their
personal preferences to add or remove subject areas.

Cookies

A cookie is a small text file written to a user’s hard drive that contains an
identifying user number. The cookies do not contain any personal information
about users. We use the cookie so users do not have to log in every time they
use the service and the cookie will automatically expire if you do not visit the
Mondaq website (or its affiliate sites) for 12 months. We also use the cookie to
personalise a user's experience of the site (for example to show information
specific to a user's region). As the Mondaq sites are fully personalised and
cookies are essential to its core technology the site will function
unpredictably with browsers that do not support cookies - or where cookies are
disabled (in these circumstances we advise you to attempt to locate the
information you require elsewhere on the web). However if you are concerned
about the presence of a Mondaq cookie on your machine you can also choose to
expire the cookie immediately (remove it) by selecting the 'Log Off' menu option
as the last thing you do when you use the site.

Some of our business partners may use cookies on our site (for example,
advertisers). However, we have no access to or control over these cookies and we
are not aware of any at present that do so.

Log Files

We use IP addresses to analyse trends, administer the site, track movement,
and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use. IP addresses are not
linked to personally identifiable information.

Links

This web site contains links to other sites. Please be aware that Mondaq (or
its affiliate sites) are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other
sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read
the privacy statements of these third party sites. This privacy statement
applies solely to information collected by this Web site.

Surveys & Contests

From time-to-time our site requests information from users via surveys or
contests. Participation in these surveys or contests is completely voluntary and
the user therefore has a choice whether or not to disclose any information
requested. Information requested may include contact information (such as name
and delivery address), and demographic information (such as postcode, age
level). Contact information will be used to notify the winners and award prizes.
Survey information will be used for purposes of monitoring or improving the
functionality of the site.

Mail-A-Friend

If a user elects to use our referral service for informing a friend about our
site, we ask them for the friend’s name and email address. Mondaq stores this
information and may contact the friend to invite them to register with Mondaq,
but they will not be contacted more than once. The friend may contact Mondaq to
request the removal of this information from our database.

Security

This website takes every reasonable precaution to protect our users’
information. When users submit sensitive information via the website, your
information is protected using firewalls and other security technology. If you
have any questions about the security at our website, you can send an email to
webmaster@mondaq.com.

Correcting/Updating Personal Information

If a user’s personally identifiable information changes (such as postcode),
or if a user no longer desires our service, we will endeavour to provide a way
to correct, update or remove that user’s personal data provided to us. This can
usually be done at the “Your Profile” page or by sending an email to EditorialAdvisor@mondaq.com.

Notification of Changes

If we decide to change our Terms & Conditions or Privacy Policy, we will
post those changes on our site so our users are always aware of what information
we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it.
If at any point we decide to use personally identifiable information in a manner
different from that stated at the time it was collected, we will notify users by
way of an email. Users will have a choice as to whether or not we use their
information in this different manner. We will use information in accordance with
the privacy policy under which the information was collected.

How to contact Mondaq

If for some reason you believe Mondaq Ltd. has not adhered to these
principles, please notify us by e-mail at problems@mondaq.com and we will use
commercially reasonable efforts to determine and correct the problem promptly.